Reed, Clyde M. Sr.

Clyde Reed, Sr., was born October 19, 1871, in Champaign county, Illinois, and came to Kansas with his family in 1875. He spent 30 years with the railway mail service before quitting to publish the Parsons Sun.

Reed had a stormy career in Kansas politics. He served as Kansas governor from 1929 to 1931, but lost the Republican nomination for a second term. He was elected to the United States senate in 1938 and was re-elected in 1944.

He died November 8, 1949, at age 78. In a telegram addressed to the family, President Harry Truman referred to Reed as, “my friend and colleague through all the years when our work in the senate brought us in daily association.”

Fred Brinkerhoff, who delivered the eulogy at Reed’s funeral, said: “The late senator was as courageous as he was intelligent. There was no false bravery in the manner with which he met his enemies. There was no insincerity in this fearlessness. There was real valor in the manner in which he made his decisions.”